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Packing a Lunch (Read 1247 times)

Julia1971


    I could use some tips on getting into the habit of packing a lunch everyday.  How do you do it?  What's your routine?

     

    I'd like to clean up my diet a bit (less processed food, more balanced diet) and I think lunch is going to be my biggest problem.  I was able to get in the habit a few years ago - I had standard fare I'd throw in my lunch bag everyday before heading out the door: two pieces of fruit, yogurt, salad w/fish, milk, a low-fat treat.  I did this almost everyday for a good month or so before giving up.  I seem to get tripped up with the pre-planning (like buying groceries over the weekend) and not getting bored (packing things I'll want to eat 4 hours later and adding some variety).  So, I end up eating out pretty much every day.

     

    Any advice or tips for me?  Thanks in advance!

      I keep a desk drawer pretty well stocked as my office pantry.  It takes some effort, though, to find reasonably healthy stuff that doesn't need to be refrigerated and is that convenient.  Almonds, raisins, dried apricots ... and then I get into things that might not be healthy enough for you (Fig Newtons, Nutri-Grain bars).

       

      I've always kept a supply of Campbells soups in there, but I just read an article that found blood BPA levels 12x elevated in people who ate canned soup six days in a row (v. people eating non-canned soup for 6 days).

      "I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."

      -- Dick LeBeau

        Been packing for over 5 years now. Tolerating a lack a variety (or embracing consistency) is probably pretty key. I've been eating basically the same lunch every workday for 1200+ days now. "Variety" comes in the different flavored yogurt, different fruit, different sandwich combinations, but it's the same lunch essentially.

         

        Have a reusable lunch bag (I got a bamboo one, feels like cloth, washable). Just pack it every morning while I'm making coffee, putting breakfast together. Takes less than 3 minutes to throw fruit, yogurt in bag, make sammitch, throw in seltzer water. Done. Not exciting, but saves a ton of money, and time (used for running at lunch).

        Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and rogues
        We're on the road to nowhere, let's find out where it goes


        Feeling the growl again

          I just take leftovers.  Turkey sandwich today, surprise surprise....

          "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

           

          I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

           

          TeaOlive


          old woman w/hobby

            I just take leftovers.  Turkey sandwich today, surprise surprise....

             

            This.  Just plan for leftovers when planning your dinners.

            steph  

             

             


            Best Present Ever

              I don't like sandwiches.  I generally eat dinner leftovers repurposed into a salad of some kind -- either greens-based or grains-based -- or soup (again, dinner leftovers -- we make a pot of soup for dinner at least once a week.  It's usually 1-2 nights worth of dinner and a few lunches). Sometimes when I'm cooking on the weekend, i'll make something specifically destined for lunches and I almost always cook with the idea that some of what we make will go into lunch.   I prefer the food I make to the food that most other people make anyway.  : )

               

              It doesn't feel like a lack of variety.  We eat a lot of different vegetables and grains that vary seasonally.  Since we get a lot of produce from a CSA 9 months out of the year, I do have periods of several weeks when I'll have a lot of the same veg, say greens in the spring and again in the late fall, but I don't really mind that.  Some of it is just mindset, I think.  I was just talking about my husband with a friend.  When he and I first met, he only wanted to eat what he wanted to eat at the moment he wanted to eat it -- he tended to throw away his leftovers and let things rot in the fridge because he never 'felt' like eating what he'd planned when he went shopping.  Drove me nuts.   I get a lot of satisfaction out of planning meals, thinking about how the leftovers will get used, looking in the fridge and declaring 'what can we make with the three things we have?'  Twelve+ years on, my husband has come around as well.  I mean, when he used to buy lunches everyday (while food rotted in his fridge!), he'd usually have soup/sandwich/salad -- there wasn't all that much variety really. 

               

              Kathryn

                I keep a desk drawer pretty well stocked as my office pantry. 

                 

                I do the same, but with booze. 

                 

                 

                 

                 


                A Saucy Wench

                  Make huge pots of soup and freeze in individual portions. toss in lunch - doubles as an icepack for whatever other food you bring.  Keep a microwave safe bowl at work and utensils. 

                   

                  Freeze leftover meat in individual portions. Toss in an undressed salad.  The meat will thaw by lunch and will keep the greens crisp.  Canned or cooked beans also freeze well and act like mini ice packs in your salad.

                   

                  I found it easier to keep stuff I used frequently (salt, pepper, salad dressing, silverware, bowl, can opener) at work.

                  I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets

                   

                  "When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7

                  Slo


                    Been packing for over 5 years now. Tolerating a lack a variety (or embracing consistency) is probably pretty key. I've been eating basically the same lunch every workday for 1200+ days now. "Variety" comes in the different flavored yogurt, different fruit, different sandwich combinations, but it's the same lunch essentially.

                     

                    Have a reusable lunch bag (I got a bamboo one, feels like cloth, washable). Just pack it every morning while I'm making coffee, putting breakfast together. Takes less than 3 minutes to throw fruit, yogurt in bag, make sammitch, throw in seltzer water. Done. Not exciting, but saves a ton of money, and time (used for running at lunch).

                     

                    I could have wrote this except I've never done anything but pack a lunch.

                     

                    For 90% of the people I work with packing a lunch isn't a choice. They are hourly workers at a manufacturing plant. They get a paid 20 min lunch break and cannot leave the premises. Almost all pack a lunch...some will eat out of the Vending machines...some will do both. There are some that will have lunch / dinner delivered.

                     

                    For those that have a choice, packing a daily lunch seems to be very difficult. I'd be willing to bet that less than 15% of the front office packs a daily lunch.


                    Running Rev'd

                      I pack a lunch almost every day. Definitely echo what other people have said - making a big pot of soup, re-purposing leftovers, etc. I keep a stash of "healthy" frozen meals (Amy's burritos, Kashi frozen entrees, etc.) in the freezer for when I run out of leftovers, but that might be too processed for you. I figure 1 or 2 times a week is still better than eating out.

                      Called to Endure - Blog

                      "Everyone gets the sunset. Only the dedicated earn the sunrise."


                      A Saucy Wench

                         I keep a stash of "healthy" frozen meals (Amy's burritos, Kashi frozen entrees, etc.) in the freezer for when I run out of leftovers, but that might be too processed for you. I figure 1 or 2 times a week is still better than eating out.

                         +1  It's not great, but WAY better than the alternative 90% of the time. 

                         

                        I also kept some canned "healthy" soups like Amy's in my desk drawer for the days I would get called into an emergency at work and had to leave the house immediately (or had to stay late enough for dinner there as well.)

                        I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets

                         

                        "When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7


                        "run" "2" "eat"

                          Been packing for over 5 years now. Tolerating a lack a variety (or embracing consistency) is probably pretty key. I've been eating basically the same lunch every workday for 1200+ days now. "Variety" comes in the different flavored yogurt, different fruit, different sandwich combinations, but it's the same lunch essentially.

                           

                          Have a reusable lunch bag (I got a bamboo one, feels like cloth, washable). Just pack it every morning while I'm making coffee, putting breakfast together. Takes less than 3 minutes to throw fruit, yogurt in bag, make sammitch, throw in seltzer water. Done. Not exciting, but saves a ton of money, and time (used for running at lunch).

                           

                          plus one.

                           

                          i workout on my lunch hour, so i cannot also afford time to get lunch and bringing lunch saves both time and money. i am a sandwich fan, so it's fairly simple for me.

                           

                          to the OP -- sounds like your biggest hurdle is "packing things I'll want to eat 4 hours later" which i would turn around and say, basically, love the one you're with. pack it, eat it, done. look at it as nutrition, not adventure.  

                          i find the sunshine beckons me to open up the gate and dream and dream ~~robbie williams

                          kcam


                            Been packing for over 5 years now. Tolerating a lack a variety (or embracing consistency) is probably pretty key. I've been eating basically the same lunch every workday for 1200+ days now. "Variety" comes in the different flavored yogurt, different fruit, different sandwich combinations, but it's the same lunch essentially.

                             

                            Have a reusable lunch bag (I got a bamboo one, feels like cloth, washable). Just pack it every morning while I'm making coffee, putting breakfast together. Takes less than 3 minutes to throw fruit, yogurt in bag, make sammitch, throw in seltzer water. Done. Not exciting, but saves a ton of money, and time (used for running at lunch).

                             

                            Same here.  Embrace consistency.  I run every day over lunch so I must pack my lunch.  I bring a small tupperware container of tuna, celery sticks and carrots, cherry tomatos (my life will suck now that our garden is no longer producing!) and one hard-boiled egg.  Every day.  Once or twice a week I'll bring a banana and some almonds as a mid-afternoon snack.


                            Prince of Fatness

                              This.  Just plan for leftovers when planning your dinners.

                               

                              I do this a lot.  It's really not that much more effort since you are eating dinner anyway.  This of course assumes that there is a microwave at work.  If there are no leftovers then I bring a sandwich.  I get leftovers more often than I used to since my kids no longer live at home.  It's a little easier to make extra when there are only two for dinner.

                              Not at it at all. 

                              xhristopher


                                Been packing for over 5 years now. Tolerating a lack a variety (or embracing consistency) is probably pretty key. I've been eating basically the same lunch every workday for 1200+ days now. "Variety" comes in the different flavored yogurt, different fruit, different sandwich combinations, but it's the same lunch essentially.

                                 

                                Have a reusable lunch bag (I got a bamboo one, feels like cloth, washable). Just pack it every morning while I'm making coffee, putting breakfast together. Takes less than 3 minutes to throw fruit, yogurt in bag, make sammitch, throw in seltzer water. Done. Not exciting, but saves a ton of money, and time (used for running at lunch).

                                 

                                You just wrote what I would have written, except I've been doing it for over 15 years. My wife takes the leftovers. Eating out at lunch is way too much food for me. I'd be fatter and even more sluggish if I did that daily. I've got to save calories for beer later in the evening, you know.

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